OAKLAND / Nut Case member tells of troubled life / Gang member, killer says he was beaten by drug-addict mom

Jason B. Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 5, 2006

An Oakland gang member convicted of four slayings testified Tuesday that he was beaten by a drug-addicted mother, grew up in group homes and was teased by classmates because he didn't know who his real father was.

Demarcus Ralls recounted his childhood Tuesday for jurors who will decide whether he should be sentenced to death for the killings, which were committed during a 10-week crime spree by the Nut Cases gang.

In a calm, subdued voice, Ralls spoke of running away from home at age 5, sleeping in a car with his older brother and breaking into homes to eat and bathe.

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"When we were tired of getting hit, we would just leave," he said.

Ralls, 21, also known as Marvin Barksdale, was convicted late last month of four killings and a dozen robberies and attempted robberies. He is the first of six members of the gang to be tried for a crime spree that included five homicides and more than 20 robberies and ended with their arrests in January 2003. The other defendants will be tried later this year.

Ralls has not been tried in the fifth slaying, of Joseph "Doc" Mabrey, because he was a juvenile when it was committed. But prosecutors have introduced his confession to the crime during the penalty phase of the trial.

Mabrey, 36, had a brief affair with Aminah Dorsey-Colbert while her husband, Greg Colbert, was in prison. Although the affair was over when Colbert was released in October 2002, Ralls said Colbert wanted Mabrey killed.

According to his confession, Ralls shot Mabrey in the back of the head while getting out of Mabrey's car near Mills College.

Ralls told jurors that he acted out of love and fear of Colbert, his older brother -- who is now jailed on an unrelated murder charge.

"I loved him," Ralls said.

Ralls recalled once seeing Colbert put a loaded gun to the head of a third brother, Jahmari "Corey" Sutton. He also said the Mabrey shooting marked the first time he had ever held a gun.

In recounting his childhood, Ralls said his mother would beat him when she smoked crack cocaine and drank alcohol.

"(She'd) slap me," he testified. "She said I looked too much like my daddy."

Ralls said he was confused during adolescence because relatives kept identifying two different men as his father. He was about 16 years old when he went to live with his biological father's family in Sacramento.

There, he attended school regularly and cared for his father, Marvin Barksdale Sr., after the elder man was shot.

"I would change his colostomy bag and take him to therapy class," Ralls said.

In tearful testimony, Ralls' paternal grandmother Ollie Barksdale of Sacramento said he was "an average kid." Other siblings described him as a kind big brother who played video games with them and took them to school.

Ralls also read from a letter he had written to his father saying he had made mistakes in his life and regretted his past behavior.

"Now I look back from a different perspective and I regret my behavior," Ralls said.